As the industry continues to grow, there will be a high demand
for quality health care professionals.

According to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the health care and social assistance
industry is expected to generate the "largest number of jobs, 5.6
million, at an annual rate of 3.0 percent" between now and 2020 —
the most dramatic growth compared to any sector in the
country.

And this growth won't be slowing down any time soon.
A recent
paper by Georgetown University reported that around 78
million baby boomers will be older than 65 by 2030, which means
that the need for health care professionals is higher now than
ever before.

As a huge proportion of the population gets older, there will be
a high demand for better health care services, cutting-edge
technology, and new drugs — along with the doctors, nurses, lab
researchers, technicians, and administrators who can propel the
industry forward.

Robin Singleton, Executive Vice President and the
national health care practice leader for DHR International,
a recruiting firm responsible for placing
executives, explained how the
health care industry is transforming, especially under President
Obama's health care reforms.

"The days of the independent, not-for-profit community
hospitals are shrinking because they don't have the resources for
the technology, medical devices and the technology to capture all
of this data they have to capture that will satisfy under the new
health reform," Singleton said.

Instead, health care providers — the hospitals,
pharmaceutical, life science and biotechnology companies —
are consolidating together to
create large self-sustaining systems.

There's also a greater emphasis on
service and patient satisfaction within these new health care
mega-systems.

That's partially because the
Meaningful Use Act under Obama's reform says that
these organizations are going to have to demonstrate
"meaningful use" in order to get paid the maximum amounts
allowable from the government (for Medicare and Medicaid
patients) and the insurance companies. This means that providers
can only fully get reimbursed if they have demonstrated through
their outcomes data that the services they provide are
appropriate and satisfactory to the patients.

But the
emphasis on service is also due to the explosion of medical
review websites.

All of this
means that the health care industry is investing a lot in
creating service jobs that will make sure everyone in the
organization is happy. These are the health care service
positions that are growing significantly right now, according to
Singleton:

1. VP of the
Patient Experience

"Basically, it
comes down to, 'Are we the Holiday Inn or the Ritz Carlton,'" she
said.

These
organizations understand that they're competing with one another
based on their patients and the internet has made it easier
to share reviews among the public, so if a patient has a bad
experience, that scenario can be shared very
quickly.

2.
Chief Patient Rights and Safety Officer

This person is
responsible for directing staff within the organization in order
to prevent any type of possible medical or health errors that
will affect the patient experience.

3.
Chief
Nursing Officer

"These people
are needed to make the necessary changes in the trenches,"
Singleton said. Patients deal with nurses the most throughout
their experience at hospitals, so it's essential to make sure
everything is running smoothly for the nursing staff.

4.
Chief Clinical Informatics Officer

"These are the
MDs that take the data from patient, physician and staff surveys
and make the quality changes needed for the
organization to run smoothly."

5.
Medical Directors

"These are the
MDs that practiced for awhile, but eventually moved into
administration positions," Singleton said.

5. Information Technology positions

Singleton told
us these positions are needed in order to analyze data, which is
crucial because data for these organizations are posted for the
public, so explanations and analysis are needed.

As for the pharmacy sector, Singleton said that more
emphasis is being placed right now on the research and
development side, because every company is trying to find the
next drug that's cheaper to make and cheaper for the consumer,
yet produces the same, or better, result than
its predecessor.

"Pharmacy
representatives are still growing, but they're really putting
their money in the researchers right now," she said.

However, "the real growth is in biotech
— these offshoot little companies that are supporting the
pharmacy companies."

"They
basically said we'll grow your viruses for you and they're
filling a particular niche to these pharmaceutical companies,"
she told us.

Despite the phenomenal growth taking place right now, most
of the jobs opening up in health care are for highly skilled
workers with multiple degrees.